Thursday, February 16, 2017

The creation of an open supers universe has hit a few snags. Nothing I can't get past, but they do need some consideration. Lets discuss.

The process for creating villains and the adventures that follow is quite a trick. I could use the Mythic GM Emulator, however I do not own that and I currently have no money for which to buy it. I may get it in the future, but for now I kind of have to wing it and come up with a situation generation device. Some of the villains and plots will pretty straightforward. If you come up with a Jewish folk hero right before World War II, for instance, it is not that much of a leap to get said hero fighting Nazis and Nazi Sympathizers. Some of the history stuff will be dependent on other heroes and villains that already exist(as I go forward), and some of it will be because it makes sense in the timeline as I am constructing it in my head.

I sort of have a rough outline of the century as it mostly will progress, based on the actual history of the big comic book universes and some ideas I have had floating around for a while now. It will start as normal with the twentieth century as we understand it. Then in the late thirties the secret world will become reveled through the lens of super human heroes and villains. The War will unite them and many great adventures will be had fighting Nazis and such. After the war, much celebrating and a return to form. In the fifties their will be Civil Strife and many heroes will go into the shadows again due to the HUAC stuff and all that. Also in the fifties will be prime time for awesome super spy organizations like UNCLE, CONTROL, SHIELD, and others. The Sixties will be a big time of Exploration of space as well as the civil rights movement. The Seventies will be prime supers time. A whole new generation of heroes has been raised up on the stories of the previous generation's heroes and will begin to don the capes once more. The eighties will bring a massive tech revolution that began in the seventies, only it will be much faster and more dramatic because of super science and the like. The nineties will be almost cyberpunk due to these advances, leading into the 2000s which will be the worlds first steps into a wider universe with the colonization of the Moon, Mars, and Venus. I have yet to decide if the solar system is inhabited by aliens yet, I could see it being interesting either way. I am open to suggestions.

So that out of the way lets dig a bit into The Golem's adventures. First I know somethings already. The Golem is immortal, which means he could be his own legacy and also he can serve as that central moral Icon for the century, much as another semi immortal alien super hero did for another universe. Golem may get taken out, but he will always return. I also know that he will have a daughter(Thanks to +Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi for that, really changed how I saw the character and opened up a lot of interesting avenues) who shows up in the seventies do to some strange circumstance with a sorceress named Drusilla, who no one on earth has ever met. Dusty, the daughter shows up as a teenager in the seventies, so that means that sometime in the fifties Golem travels to another dimension, meets Drusilla and they somehow form a union that results in a daughter created through magic. Because of this we know that other dimensions exist, perhaps an infinite Landscape of dimensions, or perhaps a finite one. So that is all in the future. In 1938 he encounters to villains of any real note. Mostly he fights corrupt councilmen, aldermen, and slumlords who are hurting the Jewish community in New York. I like to think he has a bit of a sense of humor about, giving out poetic punishments that are meant to teach people the error of their ways as much as punish them.

The Ghost(Later known as the Flying Dutchman) and the Crime College first came into being in the late twenties. The Ghost is sort of a talent scout for criminals. He is a master of many skills, His family is of the dutch royal line exiled due to circumstances none wish to speak of, he was raised to be a master of all skills and disciplines. He used those skills to become a master thief and by the mid twenties had accumulated over ten million dollars in ill gotten gains. He then set about investing that money in the inner city, gathering talented people to him to build an empire of crime and advance the science of crime. He employs scientists to develop technologies to enhance criminals, and he trains street toughs in a martial art of his own devising. He does not run organized crime, but he sells services and technology to Organized crime. The Ghost encounters The Golem when some of his operations were disrupted by The Golem. He came out of retirement and fought the Golem to a standstill his technology just barely a match for the Golem's inhuman might. He was eventually defeated and handed over to the authorities, but promptly escaped and is on the lamb. He still nurses a grudge and swore that one day he would bring the Golem low.

Die Maske is a member of the Nazi SS who specializes in disguise. None but Himmler know his real name(or even if he is a man or a woman). Die Maske uses specialized chemicals to make her skin more pliable and shapeable, as well as to change her voice. He uses this to study and copy people and to gather secret information. He first encountered the Golem when trying to sabotage the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and frame the French Government. The Goem put a stop to the plans, but could not capture Die Maske as she placed innocent people in danger. The Golem had to choose between catching Him and saving innocents. I see Die Maske a s a solid recurring villain in any story involving the War.

Now that I have the two big adventures of 1938 somewhat plotted out I got to thinking. What are some of the knock on effects of the Appearance of the Golem? For one I think that interest in the Jewish faith will be on the rise. I have a feeling Orthodox Jewish belief will have a larger impact on the history of North America than it did in our own century. It also raises the question on the nature of Deity in the universe. I am a christian, so I do tend to have a bias toward a specific monotheistic worldview. However I really do like having the various pantheons and such as well, I love all of Jack Kirby's stuff(the Fourth World, Asgard) as well as being quite fond of the Greek and Roman Pantheons. I would also like to do something fun with the Hindu pantheon...maybe. I am thinking of doing a solution like they did in the DC universe, where there is an Uncaused First Cause(the Source) and the gods are just super powerful entities that are often worshiped throughout the cosmos. I could even call the central godhead, The Cause or something of the like. Let e know what you think. Maybe you have a better idea for how the gods would work in this universe.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

In a comment on my last post it was brought up that Microscope would work far better for this project than what I am currently doing. This is a true statement. Microscope is a fantastic tool for rapidly building a whole timeline with lots of interesting ideas in it. However It does lack a couple of things that I need. First, it is best played with a group, and I wanted to make sure that I could continue this project even if no one else is interested in it. Secondly it is not random. If I am to do this project myself I need a bunch of random generators in order to make that work. For this project I needed something with random character generation and so I chose FASERIP, I could have also picked Icons or Mutants & Masterminds as both would fit really well in the kind of world I am building. Heck if anyone wants to make there own heroes for this setting you could use those systems to equal effect. All I really need is the basics of what the hero can do and how that would effect the timeline. System is pretty unimportant.

Today we delve into Generations with the first public superhero. I will walk through the character creation step by step so that you can see how it is all done. When I have the character done I will then do an abbreviated version of his first three adventures.

So to start we need to work out the basic power level of the setting. I am going with World Class as my starting point, which is where the game recommends we start. Then I must roll to see how much higher or lower the various Abilities will be. For my pluses I roll 68, 1, and 47. Meaning my character's Reason, Fighting, and Endurance each go up one rank. I then must roll my negatives. For which I get 74, 69, and 79, meaning my character's reason is decreased by one rank(cancelling out the bonus I just gained) and my intuition decreases by two ranks. This leaves me with the following Ability ratings:

These can be increased Later, but this is my starting point. Now We roll for powers: Now comes the fun stuff. For my first power pick I rolled 93 on the power acquisition table giving me a transformation power. Rolling a 12 on the transformation powers table give me Alter Ego as my first power. My next roll is 17 giving me an Attack power and the roll on the attack table is 24 giving me Blast as my second power. For my third power point I will roll again and get 85 a sense power. rolling on the sense table gives me 88, Super senses(which I must pick a specific one, I am going with Circular Vision). Now I will roll again, 75, which grants me a Physical enhancement power. Rolling 37 give me the power of Immortality. Now I have spent 4 of my eight power points and have a fairly eclectic group of powers. I think I will spend some of my points non randomly in order to increase some of my existing scores. I will increase my strength, fighting, and endurance each by one which costs one point each. This leaves my with one point left. I think I will make one last random power roll. A 20 gives me an attack power or a boost to an existing attack power. I think I will increase Blast With that. Now My Character looks like this:

So he is really tough, good at fighting will live for a very long time and can shoot lasers from his fingers(or something). Good Good. I really don't care for Alter Ego so I think I am going to drop that Power and use that to gain two benefits. The Benefits I am looking at are A specialty in the Blast Power, and a Specialty in Investigation(my intuition sucks and a hero has to be able to ind some clues. The final step is to come up with a random origin and a random source for those powers. I rolled a 2 on the origin table that I made(though I crewed that up and need to fix it) and so this character is Artificial in some way. I think he is some sort of robot or something. As this is the thirties I have to decide if mad science has advanced to the point of intelligent robots or if maybe I should go with a golem. I like that, a heroic golem. Though that does raise the question, is he an American or is he the hero of the Jewish ghettos in Germany. Maybe he is American, he was created in response to the antisemitism that spread throughout the world. I could see him doing stuff like Joe Greenstein(who is awesome and you should read up on him, he once beat up thirty members of the American Nazi party on his own). Also this would make this character a bit of a warped mirror of superman, in a way. I like it. Now for the source of his power, I rolled a 5 giving me a power source of Innate. That makes sense as a mystic construct of the collective will of the Jewish immigrants in New York I see the golem being naturally strong and tough and immortal. Also he can shoot fire because why not. SO now I give you the First Public Superhero:

As the Nazis gained power in Germany the Jews began to flee the country. Many came to America as they saw it as a land of freedom and peace. When they arrived, though they saw that the Nazi movement was making inroads here too. These people came to their Rabbis with concerns the people prayed. For nearly a year now, the Jewish areas of New York have been patrolled by a shadowy savior. He speaks mostly in Hebrew and helps those in need. Eventually the Mob started muscling in and the savior had to step into the light to do battle with these criminals. Standing seven foot tall and made of living mud and brick The Golem drove the hoodlums out of the neighbor hood. Immensely strong and durable, and able shoot fire, this strange being has become something of a sensation in the papers. He is just now beginning to see what a force for good he could be, not just in stopping crime but in helping America realize the Danger of the Nazis and those like them.

There is the first public Superhero in this setting. Going to be honest, did not see it going this way. I am not sure I am in love with the wording of the description, but It will o for now. I think for future heroes I may want to do origin and source first, rather than last, I think that will help me sort out powers as I go. Next time I will come up with the first super villain to threaten this setting. Should be exciting. Let me know what you think of this first hero, and maybe help make him more interesting and such. I also need to work out how magic and such works now, as now that is a major part of the setting.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

The idea: I want to make a living supers universe. something that would be super fun to play in and have grand adventures in. I would love to run this game as a GM, however I do not do very well in long term games. It is just not how my brain operates. So instead what I would like to do is create a bunch of superheroes and villains and slot them into the timeline as I go. I will be trying to organically create a supers universe where people age as they go and the status quo is less important than following through on the ramifications of a world with supers in it. If major technologies have little impact that will be due to explainable reasons, even if those explanations are the actions of other powerful beings. I will be stealing heavily from existing universes for the timeline, so the initial supers will be few, but powerful. As time goes on there will be an increase in the number of supers and villains.

The year is 1938 and and I will start with the first batch of superheroes. There may
have been mystery men and adventurers in the past, but these are the first
public supers of the modern age. I get one big team up adventure per year. Between
adventures I will write up a number of solo adventures(between one and
three), only one of which is allowed to have a recurring villain. The years go forward as normal. After each major adventure you
can continue the character or come up with a new one to have in the new
adventure. After about ten to fifteen years worth of adventuring the hero will
retire(unless they are immortal or something). Being a superhero is a lot like being a professional athlete, it is hard on the body. So you can have legacies
build out like that. Then I carry it forward from then until now
and we build the world as it goes.

I will be using a number of system in order to replicate what I need for the setting. I will be making characters using FASERIP(its free so check it out, I like it you might too). I enjoy the game and it has a very decent random character generator, so that will be handy. I will use the world alteration rules from Progenitor(not free, but worth every penny) in order to judge the changes to the timeline as I go, so anti grav and super pills will have a real world impact. I also will be stealing as much of the bizarre stuff from comics as I can. No Origin or Source of Powers is off the table, though I will have to come up wit ha random table for those so that I have less control and thus must exhibit more creativity(I hope).

The world will probably have a more optimistic bent to it as making it super grim/dark has no real appeal to me. Though I do think that there would be some major issues that would crop up so we will see how that works as we go forward. It will probably be a bit America focused as I am American and understand that paradigm a little better than other countries. That said I will definitely try to include more heroes from around the world. I will start with America though as flamboyant heroes in bright costumes fighting for truth and justice sort of fits in America very well. I really do want to do a big honking Brazilian team though, not sure where they will fit in but I think it would be cool. Anyway, I will also need a way to randomly come up with superhero world changing events and a way to make sure they stay spaced out so that its not happening all the time. Stuff like the White Event, Blackest Night, The Comet, and similar stuff that changes the dynamic of the setting will be needed, but I can't have them happening all the time.

Yearly Adventure Generator
Big changing events, you get one per ten year period(1939-1949, etc) each year I roll a ten sided die and on a ten that is the year of that decade's events.

When designing a character you must answer these questions(though not all at the same time)
Do they get married?
Do they have children?
Are their powers/training/gadgets inherited?
Do their children go on to be superheroes?
Is anyone else inspired by the hero to become a hero(do not need to have the same powers)?

And the best part? You can play along as well. Seriously It would be cool. If you have a blog and want to play along there you certainly can make sure to leave me a link in the comments so I can add it to the setting, otherwise do a write up of your Hero/adventure/what have you and then send me a note in the comments and I will post it in my next post in this series. I think that would be pretty cool. It could start some really spiffy ideas and spin the world off into even more cool ideas. It will start to feel a little more like an actual comic book universe as we will get some messiness and complexity that a single writer cannot get. This may mean that we need to have a couple of parallel universes or something, but that is cool and totally usable in this setting. Like I said, nothing is off the table at this point.

So what do you think? Is there anything I need to add? Anything where I am going to far, digging too deep?